they are thrust. These peaks, geologists say, united into a 

 single mass, once bore an alpine height upon their shoulders 

 which looked across wide valley lands toward a distant sea. 

 Time beyond count laid bare the mountain base, which the 

 slow southward grinding of the ice-sheet later trenched into a 

 dozen deeply isolated peaks. Between them, hollows, deeper 

 than the present level of the sea in places, now contain a 

 number of beautiful fresh-water lakes and one magnificent 

 fjord which nearly cuts the island into two. Finally, owing 

 to a general subsidence along the coast, the sea swept inland, 

 flooding round the ice-eroded remnant of the ancient moun- 

 tain to form the largest rock-built island on the Atlantic shore 

 from the St. Lawrence southward, and its highest elevation. 



In places on the island's southern shore, the granite comes 

 down to the ocean front, forming the boldest headlands and 

 thrusting out to meet the sea's attack the grandest storm- 

 swept rocks upon our coast; in other places, the enclosing 

 sedimentary rocks, hardened by the enormous heat and pres- 

 sure caused by the granitic upburst, oppose the ocean with 

 dark, furrowed cliffs of different character but equally mag- 

 nificent, in shine or storm. 



The whole Acadian region of eastern Maine, which the 

 Sieur de Monts National Monument represents with rare 

 completeness in a single tract of concentrated interest, is rich 

 in delightful features, in forests, lakes and streams, and the 

 wild life of every kind — plant, animal and fish — that haunts 

 them. Its value as a vast recreative area for the whole nation 

 to the eastward of the Rockies is even yet but little realized, 

 although from the first opening of the fishing season in the 

 spring to the close of hunting in the fall an immense tide of 

 recreative travel streams continually through it. 



The new National Monument, and future Park as it will 

 doubtless be, lies — with all the added beauty of the ocean 

 and interest of historic association — close beside the main 

 entrance to this region, where the Penobscot mingles its fresh 

 water with the sea. From the Monument, delightful trips by 

 train, by boat, by motor, may be made on every side — up 



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